All you can eat: Going wild in Denmark's gastronomy paradise

(CNN) — At Dragsholm Castle, on the northwestern coast of Denmark's Zealand island, they once chased ghosts.

Now, along the beautiful forest paths that surround the 800-year-old castle, they chase edible flowers, wood sorrel and other wild ingredients that in recent years have pushed the country's restaurants to the forefront of global gastronomy.

Dragsholm now stands as a beacon of Nordic terroir cooking, largely thanks to Claus Henriksen, a former chef at Copenhagen's world-beating Noma restaurant, who was drafted in seven years ago to head up its two restaurants.

Today the castle is considered one of the truest representations of soil-to-plate dining.

Add water, dunes, fields and forest to that equation and you get an idea of the rich and rewarding natural surroundings the chefs get to work with.

Anyone spending the night here can practically pop down in their dressing gown and slippers to pick wild herbs for morning tea.

It's well worth spending the night.

The castle's historic rooms have been beautifully restored as hotel facilities.

Beach herbs

Stoltz guides visitors through the soft forest ground, brimming in spring with wood sorrel and ramson, past the black cheery trees, which Henriksen uses in the castle kitchen for making breads and tea, and down the fields scattered with juniper bushes.

From the elevated castle grounds there are views of nearby Nekselo bay where beach herbs peer up through the dunes and banks.

"In the summer there is arrowgrass, which tastes of coriander," says Stoltz. "All year round we find scurvy grass, which is what the Vikings used to bring around Europe as a medicinal herb. We also call it wasabi wort because of its intensity, just like horseradish."

On a good day, glasswort, beach mustard and saltbush can also be found.

Anyone here on a Wednesday morning might spot Henriksen lurking around the beach, scouring for ingredients and getting a firsthand briefing from nature of what his menu is going to look like.